Howdy, y’all! This week’s newsletter is coming to you from the great state of Oklahoma - and I will hold my feelings about how Texas is greater just this once. We’re here seeing family and celebrating the last few days of summer before my kids go back to school this week. Did I mention one of my children is starting middle school? I’m still in denial. Hope you enjoy this week’s treasures!
🕯️ A personal treasure for me this week: one of our Lil Swipes, Sasha Johns, has procured the tortilla candle from HEB for me. I cried when I found this out. This community is the best! Thank you, Sasha!
🎙️ My friend and podcaster/editor/producer, Angie Elkins (she hosts the Chatologie podcast) is teaching a LIVE online podcasting class on Zoom beginning Monday, August 9 (that’s this Monday!) Angie is such a helpful voice when it comes to podcasting, and this course is going to be an amazing resource for anyone who’s looking to enter (or already in) the podcast industry.
😴 I’m not gonna lie, guys. Moving coupled with this new surge of COVID coupled with trying to send my kids back to school has made me feel tremendously weary. I’m frustrated and I’m tired. Does anyone else feel like this? Anne Helen Peterson’s newsletter this week, titled “You’re Still Exhausted”, made me feel more like a human again and validated some of my woes. Also, if you don’t subscribe to Anne’s weekly newsletter, you are seriously missing out. It’s one of my favorite reads. (You can subscribe here!)
💛 Another place you can find me this week is on the Surviving Sarah podcast. I had the best time talking with Sarah about pop culture and motherhood, so if either of those things interest you, give it a listen!
🏅 This video of kids asking Olympians questions is adorable.
🗄️ My friend Tara at House Peace has helped me bring order to my chaos. She is a wizard and I will passionately endorse anything she does for the ways she has made my life easier! She just released an online course for helping organize your kid’s keepsakes that is going to be a game-changer in the Moon home (at this very moment I have a stack of drawings and school sheets on my kitchen counter that I’m unsure what to do with…) If you have kids going back to school soon, I recommend this course! It will help you create a system for the madness before a tornado of worksheets takes over your house.
🥪 PSA, if you don’t already - you need to follow Half Baked Harvest on Instagram. I feel like I save literally everything she posts because it all looks so amazing. When she cuts her foods in half and pulls it apart for the cheese to really do it’s thing - you know what I’m talking about. GIVE ME THAT OOZY CHEESE. She posted this recipe for a tomato bacon grilled cheese so if you need me next week, I’ll be trying to pull apart my grilled cheese with the same grace that Tieghan does.
This week’s tweets were GOLDEN:
“Hey Siri, add this tweet as my daily reminder:”
That’s it for me, pals! I’ve got a weekend stocked full of juicy watermelon, family reunions and soaking in the last few events of the Olympics. Can’t wait to see what you have planned in the comments!
You all were amazing at encouraging me to join in on the comments, so here I am! Thanks for all of the warm welcomes and positive support.
I am two months post partum with my fourth son and it has been a doozy. Did anyone catch Allyson Felix’s return home video? I’m reminded her post about her struggle with returning to her athletic body after baby and I’m thinking dang, everybody’s postpartum journey is différent but I certainly didn’t win any Olympic gold medals after any of my pregnancies. Amazing.
Do any of you follow Jackie Hill Perry? She’s having some awesome teachings lately. I listened to her podcast 30 min with the Perry’s twice this week in Aliens and cackled both times.
My parents have been visiting us this past month for vacation and will finally leave this coming week. A month seems like a long time for parents but we live really far away and haven’t seen each other in person since 2018! I’ve needed all the hands on help with my kids and am a big anxious to see how I survive when they leave.
My oldest heads into first grade in few weeks and he’s been anxious about it all summer. I don’t recall ever having so much anxiety before starting school. I head praticing your schedule before starting helps but who wants to practice for school before school even starts? <—-not me!
I hope everyone finds some joy in their week this week, I’ll be on the hunt for it myself too.
Cheers!
It's been a rough season, y'all. I've been a little absent on the comments but the newsletter and the updates from lil swipes has been a sweet treasure during this time. Our sweet grandfather lost his 2.5 year battle with cancer last month (which, for me personally was the third grandparent I've lost in 6 months). We moved - which, as Erin mentioned, is truly exhausting normally, but even more so as I was in summer semester of grad school during the move. My husband works on commission paid two months out and we are in a super tight spot as the result of a bad few months with a terrible manager. I've dealt with chronic pain and fatigue for 10 years and it's gotten so much worse over the last two months. I'm on new meds and have to swap to a gluten free, dairy free diet. While both new meds and a diet change will likely help, it's putting further strain on our finances.
I'm just exhausted, body and soul. I am just so lost and tired and in constant pain. I'm trying not to break down at work everyday but the odds are not so much in my favor. I am deeply grateful for this community and sharing life with y'all - thank you for always listening and supporting a stranger on the internet.